The Reason
by WritingRowlet
Summary: Gary's eevee had five options for her evolution, so why did she choose umbreon? It was obviously not for vanity reasons, but it could have had something to do with those glowing rings. Ultimately, it had to come down to her trainer that Eevee made the decision on her own to evolve.


Gary Oak was a very proud kid, to say the least. He hated showing any weakness and did his best to hide his fears. Of course, that didn't mean he wasn't afraid of anything, it was actually quite the opposite. Though, out of all the things the ten-year-old feared, none was feared more than the dark. Or, rather, what could hide in the dark.

Which was why Gary avoided camping; he didn't want to be surrounded by the dark _outside_ with no one around but his pokemon who would be feet away in their pokeballs if anything were to happen. But, Gary did end up camping one night. He called out his pokemon to be by his side for the evening while the sun set and ate with them as darkness started to settle over the Johto forest. Gary was very glad for Nidoqueen being on his team, too, because at every little noise she moved to put herself between the noise-maker and Gary.

However, when sleep called Gary knew that his team couldn't exactly be trusted to stay out of their balls while he was unconscious. So, Gary reluctantly returned them all one-by-one. When he got to his Eevee, though, she smacked the pokeball back into his hand. Gary scowled and tossed the ball back down at her just to have her hit it back to him.

"Eevee, I'm not playing!" Gary fussed. He hit the button on the center of the pokeball to return her more manually. Seconds later, Eevee popped back out of her ball. "Eevee!" Gary growled. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, knowing that Eevee was about as stubborn as him. "Fine, whatever, get in the tent…"

Eevee followed her trainer into his tent happily. Gary changed into his pajamas quickly and flopped down into his sleeping bag. Eevee curled up beside his head and rested a paw on Gary's hair.

After half an hour, Gary still couldn't sleep. It was too dark outside and wild pokemon were making too much noise and yeah sleep was just not happening. He rolled over on his side and looked up to see Eevee staring at him. Sighing, Gary sat up. "It's no use; I can't go to sleep…" he mumbled to the little fox. Eevee got to her feet and made her way onto Gary's lap to curl up. She laid on her back and asked for a belly rub, which Gary gave with only minimal laughter. "Y'know, we haven't thought much about what you want to evolve into…" Gary said. Yeah, he'd shown Eevee pictures of the five known options, but she'd never really given a 'Yes! Yes! Yes! This one!' to any of the evolutions. Eevee nibbled on his thumb and clung to his hand with her front paws.

Gary snickered and reached over to turn on the lantern. He grabbed a pokemon field guide and flipped to the eevee evolution page. "I know you like jolteon but what about-" Gary cringed when he heard a fearow outside caw loudly. Eevee tilted her head to the side and got to her paws to lean up and lick Gary's cheek. He snickered and put the book down to hold her. "Thanks, Eevee, I love you too…"

Eevee mewed happily and licked his face again to make Gary laugh. She nuzzled his face with her fuzzy cheeks until Gary fell over, eyes squeezed shut tight in laughter. Had his eyes been open he would have seen the flash of light that always came with evolution. But, the sudden extra weight on his chest had to suffice.

When he noticed this weight, Gary's eyes shot open. He looked at his eevee to see she had been replaced with…umbreon?! "You evolved!" he shouted and bolted up where he laid.

"Umbree!" Umbreon chirped. The golden rings around her body began to glow as she jumped around Gary. His eyes widened as this happened and he even turned off the lantern to make sure he wasn't just seeing things.

"You evolved into Umbreon…on purpose, didn't you?" Gary questioned. Umbreon nudged her nose under Gary's hand and poked her face up at him sympathetically. "Thanks, Umbreon…" Gary smiled, rubbing her head and laying down. Umbreon laid down beside Gary, her rings still glowing bright. It was just bright enough to comfort the trainer, which was all he needed.

Although, if anyone were to ever ask why Gary Oak would want his eevee to evolve into such a nocturnal pokemon, they both denied the real reason. They instead said the reason was for speed and defense and certainly not because of the glowing rings.

 **Headcanon aside, when I was little I always hoped Gary's eevee would have evolved into Flareon because I was a huge fire-type fanatic. But, once we had Umbreon, I was not disappointed.**

 **Review and Favorite if you enjoyed!**


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